THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 The ...

160 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12
When you go into the garden you are talking. If you are not talking with somebody else you are in a constant
dialogue within yourself. You divide yourself into many persons, you make a crowd inside yourself. You are
questioning and answering within yourself. You don’t look at the flowers. You don’t feel the fragrance, the joy
of the birds, the celebration of the trees. You don’t allow yourself any sensitivity, any opportunity to be more
sensitive, to be more available to existence, to be more vulnerable.
Sensitivity means openness, vulnerability, availability.
Buddha says: MASTER YOUR SENSES, WHAT YOU TASTE AND SMELL, WHAT YOU SEE, WHAT
YOU HEAR.
People are either talking or reading newspapers or listening to the radio or watching the television even five
hours, six hours per day, watching television, destroying your eyes! And there is so much to see, and you are
sitting before a box, glued to your chair!
In his heavenly abode, the patriarch Abraham lit the shabbes candles and then, over a glass of tea and lemon,
he settled back to read the ’Forvetz’.
Suddenly, from down below on Earth, he heard a raucous tumult.
”Now, who could be desecrating the Sabbath like that?” he wondered.
With his new laser telescope, he looked down and there he saw a crowd of at least eighty thousand people in the
Houston Astrodome watching a baseball game. A quick count showed him that over thirty thousand Jews were
among the spectators. Outraged, he picked up the phone and dialed G-O-D. After a few rings, the boss picked up
the receiver.
”Hello,” said Father Abraham, ”that you, Joe?”
”Now look here, Abe the name is Jehovah! Show a little respect!”
”All right, Jehovah, then. I have a complaint.”
”What is it this time? Those people from the New Testament picking on you again?”
”Nothing like that. But you really must do something about all that goyishe conduct back on Earth. Did you
know that at this very minute thirty thousand Jews are watching a baseball game at the Astrodome?”
”You got something against baseball?”
”No, of course not. But that is not the point. This is Friday evening and it seems to me our people ought to
be a little more observant of the holy day.”
”What is the big attraction they are all watching the game?”
”Hank Aaron is coming to bat and he is about to break Babe Ruth’s record.”
”You are absolutely right, Abe. That is no excuse for them to act like a bunch of wild Republicans. Call me
back after the game and I will do something about it.... And by the way, what channel is it on?”
Not only man but even God is glued to his chair, looking at the television!
Buddha says: Whatsoever you are doing... small things eating, walking, drinking water, taking a bath,
swimming in a river whatsoever you are doing lying down in the sun be utterly there, be totally there. Become
your senses. Come down from the mind to the senses, come back to the senses.
And what the Buddhists have done for twenty-five centuries is just the opposite: they have gone more and
more into the head, they have destroyed their senses completely. They have become dead as far as their bodies
are concerned. Only their heads are continuously working, occupied day and night in great interpretations. And
they have created so many absurd laws in the name of Buddha that you will not believe it. Thirty-three thousand
laws and rules to be followed; even to remember them is impossible. Thirty-three thousand laws and rules to be
followed!
Buddha knows only one law and that is awareness and that’s enough; it takes care of everything. He gives you
the master key; you need not carry thirty-three thousand keys with you. Otherwise, whenever the time arises to
open a lock you will be at a loss, searching into those thirty-three thousand keys! I don’t think you will be able
to find the right key. It is impossible to find the right key, because that’s how things work. If you are supposed to
take two pills, open the bottle and they will always come in threes, never twos! If you are supposed to take three
pills, they will come in twos, they will never come in threes. Life is very mysterious!
Thirty-three thousand keys... and you think you will be able to find the right key when you come across a
lock? Impossible... or it will take thirty-three thousand lives for you to find it; by that time the lock will be gone.
Either you will have the key or you will have the lock, but never both at the same time. In your unconsciousness
how can you carry thirty-three thousand laws?
Mulla Nasruddin came home one night late, utterly drunk. He was trying... and he had only one key, but it
wouldn’t go in the lock because he was trembling and shaking.